NEW ORLEANS – Today, the Greater New Orleans Foundation officially announced the fourth annual GiveNOLA Day will take place on Tuesday, May 2, 2017, from 12:00 a.m. – 11:59 p.m. The announcement took place at the Greater New Orleans Foundation’s new Center of Philanthropy, located on Lee Circle.
New Orleans Fire Department Chief Timothy McConnell sounded the fire truck siren to excite the giving community at a “fired-up” press conference. “Let’s all get ready to give! On May 2, we will have the opportunity to come together as a community, support well-deserving nonprofits and improve the quality of life for us all,” said McConnell.
In the past three years, GiveNOLA Day, which is a community-wide, 24-hour online giving day, has raised more than $10 million for regional nonprofits. This year, the Greater New Orleans Foundation hopes to raise $4.5 million from 30,000 donations for 700 nonprofits.
“We have a culture of giving in the New Orleans community and the generosity is astounding,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “Let’s demonstrate it on May 2 by coming together on this day of giving to help raise $4.5 million to support our incredible nonprofits whose missions range from feeding our hungry, to sheltering our homeless, to promoting the arts.”
All donations made on the GiveNOLA.org website go directly to participating nonprofits working on a broad range of issues: arts and culture, animals, community improvement, education, environment, health, housing, human rights, human services, public safety and crime and youth development. At the end of GiveNOLA Day, every participating nonprofit will receive a proportional share of the “Lagniappe Fund,” a local pool of incentive dollars raised by sponsors. The Greater New Orleans Foundation does not collect any fees from contributions in order for the nonprofit organizations to receive the maximum benefit.
“We’re excited to continue our commitment to GiveNOLA Day and to witness the region’s generosity and enthusiasm for area nonprofits,” said Charles Rice, president and CEO of Entergy New Orleans, a sponsor of this year’s GiveNOLA Day.
“GiveNOLA Day is a day we can all come together and support the plethora of nonprofits that support our region,” said Greater New Orleans Foundation President and CEO Andy Kopplin. “Because the minimum donation is $10, it’s a day when everyone can be a philanthropist.”
In 2016, GiveNOLA Day suffered from a technology failure that affected the website for approximately ten hours within the 24-hour campaign. Despite this setback, the giving day generated an astonishing $4 million for the 713 participating nonprofit organizations. In an effort to eliminate the chances of technology issues this year, the Greater New Orleans Foundation has engaged a new technology partner. The new partner for GiveNOLA Day 2017 will be Denver-based CiviCore.
“After much research and due diligence, we have decided to choose CiviCore as our new technology partner for GiveNOLA Day 2017 for two reasons. First, CiviCore has a track record of success having raised over $200 million for nonprofits nationwide on their giving platform. Second, their platform is built with fail-over protections, which hopefully won’t be necessary, but available just in case,” explained Kopplin.
Registration for nonprofits wishing to participate is open from Jan. 10 through Feb. 14. All nonprofits must participate in a mandatory mechanics webinar, the dates and times of which can be found here.
All 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations that are in good standing with the IRS, nonprofit entities that have a fiscal sponsor that is a 501(c)(3) organization in good standing with the IRS and organizations categorized by the IRS as 509(a)(3) are eligible to participate. The organization’s service area and mailing address must be in the Greater New Orleans Foundation 13-parish region, which is: Assumption, Jefferson, Lafourche, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne and Washington.
Supporting organizations must provide additional documentation, if not already on file with the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
